Granata - Mama tried: traditional Italian cooking for the screwed, crude, vegan & tattooed

How cute and appropriate is that??!) Mama Tried comprises over 100 recipes from the various traditions of the different regions of Italy. In these pages, you will find appetizers, first and main courses, condiments, liqueurs, desserts, non-dairy dairy products and an entire chapter dedicated to aphrodisiac recipes. Each chapter corresponds to one letter of the Italian alphabet; all the recipes within that section begin with that same letter (in Italian, but luckily you also get an English translation), which means there are all kinds of recipes in a chapter. To make things a bit easier, youll find a convenient symbol next to each recipe title, telling you if you are about to eat soup or dessert, or if the recipe is quick to make, gluten-free, or soy-free. The first chapter, A as in Appetizers (antipasti), is an exception and contains one appetizer for each letter of the alphabet. Some of the recipes are vegan by default.

Others have been veganized in order to introduce you to a wide range of typical flavors of Italy in their cruelty-free versions. Italy has an extraordinary variety of food and infinite ways of presenting and consuming it. Each area adds something different and its cuisine reflects the availability of local ingredients. In this sense, Italian food maintains to this day a close relationship to the Earth and its cycles. I aim to provide hints of this fabulous puzzle and invite you to always work with your own local products and find the variations that fit each season and the territory. This is not only to maintain the peculiarity of Italian style, but also to value a sustainable lifestyle in which we can cooperate with this planet in a functional way.

Food is the most direct relationship we have with our own role in the world. As fun and pleasurable it can be, lets never forget its intrinsic radical power. Here is another very Italian note: many of the recipes call for your own judgment. You will be asked to adjust quantities and even some ingredients depending on your taste and on what you have left in the fridge. A lot of food publications in Italy would ask you to eyeball the amounts; its not uncommon to find recipes even without amounts at all! People are generally more used to home-cooking and pretty much all Italians are preparing their own food most of the time. You will not be asked to make up the instructions, but dont be surprised if I ask you to use your intuition to finish making your dinner.

On the last notes of this Italian stream of consciousness, please be advised that youll also find some foreign terms. Let me introduce you the most recurrent and un-avoidable: the fabulous soffritto. This is the very base of a lot of recipes. It simply means to saut sliced garlic or onions (depending on what the recipe calls for.some fancier variations include thin-sliced carrots and celery, parsley or other spices) in a thread of extra virgin olive oil until they get translucent without burning. To this, you will add all kinds of marvelous things and start building the recipe. Most importantly, about the garlic: any time I mention this flavorsome ingredient, please note I mean the clove cut in half, without the skin and without the green germ, which in Italian is romantically called anima, or soul.

So skin that motherfucker to its very essence and indulge in the only moment of cruelty you are allowed within this publication. There is something magical, alchemical, so vibrant and passionate about food preparation. I have always loved spending time in the kitchen with mom and grandma, learning secrets infused with love, embracing the desire to please and nurture, playing the witch who stirs potions out of herbs, bringing people together in convivial sympathy around a table. What youll find here is this, a genuine passion and curiosity for cooking, feeding and eating in a way that is un-pretentious, fun, casual and sometimes messy but never bloody.
This is my first book. I hope that you and all the other animals in the world will enjoy it.